A typical wholesale photofinishing lab or facility currently use monitoring systems which are fragmented, costly, technically cumbersome and not representative of the specific operation parameters or customers/markets served by the photofinishing laboratory or facility.
Current monitoring systems for monitoring film processors and printers in a typical photofinishing facility are done daily, but in separate non-linked steps. A film processor is typically monitored through the use of a film process tool, which comprises an exposed strip of film which contains a plurality of patches of varying densities. Once the exposures have been developed, the density of the patches are measured and compared to aims. Deviations from the aim indicate if the chemicals are performing as required. If measured densities vary beyond predetermined parameters, corrective action is typically taken. Though the standards established may well represent technically well derived aims, they usually bear little similarity to the equipment, chemistry, or the configuration that exists in the particular lab environment.
Currently there exists an array of printer setup and printer balancing kits available from various film manufacturers and other quality tool suppliers, most, if not all, embody a set of processed negatives and various common film types in a standard or referenced print for setup comparison. A typical printer setup tool comprises calibrated negatives that when printed or matched to aims to determine correct output. Particularly, each negative has an area for measuring the print density, which is compared to aim. Printer setups are changed to make prints at the aimed density by making adjustments to exposure to compensate for the deviation from aim. Printer setup tools may be processed by the manufacturer or by the photofinishing lab depending upon the type of tool being used. Since tools are being provided by the manufacturer, the setup obtained by the tool may not be representative of current film coatings processed through the processing lab, or may be printed on paper stock which is different from the one currently used in the photofinishing lab and prepared on a printer and processor, not some other system being set up for control.
In addition to the foregoing problems, in a typical photofinishing lab the film process condition is not monitored at the time of processing the printer setup tool. Thus, the printer setup may be different due to film processing chemical conditions. It is important to be sure that film process chemical conditions are satisfactory at the time of the process of the printer control tool. Further, negatives from two different film process chemicals may require different printer setups even though both process chemicals are within limits. A further problem with the prior art printer control tool is that it is typically processed by the manufacturer and there is no link between the process chemical control tool and the processing chemicals of the customer films. As a result, printer setups always need compensation to produce the best color pictures.
The present invention provides a single control tool that has process monitor patches and printer setup negatives. The photofinishing lab can process the tool, and if the process monitor patch densities are within specification, the photofinisher knows that the printer setup negatives are within the specification and will adjust the printing equipment utilizing the tool. However, if the patches used to monitor the film processor indicates that there is a problem, the tool will not be used and adjustments are first made to the film processor until the densities of the tool are within limits, then the portion of the tool used for printer setup can be used for setting up of the printer. Thus, utilizing the present invention, the user will know that the film process chemicals are within prescribed limits and that the printer setup negative have also been processed properly. The present invention also assures the photofinisher that the tool he is using matches the customer film and at the exact time of processing the film process chemicals will perform as required. This is a significant advantage because photoprocessing chemical performance can be altered by small amounts of contamination, differences in processing time, or temperature, thus requiring frequent monitoring. The present invention provides a printer setup tool every time the photoprocessing chemicals are monitored providing the ability for the photofinisher to eliminate the photoprocess chemical variation from the variation color and density of the customer pictures.